ILLINI WRESTLING FACILITIES

BACKGROUND

It is no secret to ILLINI fans who follow this site and who followed the old ILLINOISMatmen that I always cherished my time watching the ILLINI wrestle at Huff Hall with my boy by my side, and a Huff Dog in hand, while he ate the Nachos with the bright nuclear goo. Even during the before times, back in 2001 through 2005, there was just enough capacity for those big crowds. 

But even back then, the place was old. 

That's two decades ago. The bathrooms were dingy, and the hot water radiators in the wrestling room reminded me of a New York apartment in 1950. 

Something had to change. 

There were complaints from opposing teams about the mold and asbestos. Remember the Coach Poeta and IMAR war with Northwestern?

Sure, historic Huff Hall, the home of the first "March Madness" high school basketball games in history, was quite a sight when it opened in 1925. The ILLINI basketball team had a 339-79 record in its friendly confines from 1925 to 1963. That included eight Big Ten and two NCAA Championships. Women's basketball, volleyball, gymnastics and wrestling have called it home. 

The Fighting ILLINI hosted the 1940 and 1947 NCAA Wrestling Championships at Huff. That's 84 and 77 years ago.

THE NEW FACILITY

Then in 2022 there was the announcement from the ILLINOIS Athletic Department that a new facility would be built. A nice one. State of the Art. Soon. By 2025. They even held a press conference where assurances were made:

 

Renderings were done, millions of dollars in donor money was put "in the bank." This was a big day for the sport at ILLINOIS.  

NEWS FROM THE ILLINOIS ATHLETIC DIRECTOR  

The ILLINOIS Athletic Director has decided "to hit pause" on the new facility, even though there is ten million dollars in the bank for it. He noted that construction costs had gone up from fourteen million to fifteen since the original plan. He failed to note that construction costs will continue to go up. 

PROMISES MADE

When you hold multiple press conferences and media events to announce a new facility; when you involve millions of dollars and big-time donations from donors, and when you back out of that agreement, you deserve scorn. 

Can anybody reach an agreement and shake hands with AD Whitman and trust that he will hold up his end of the bargain? 

Construction costs will always go up. They will go up now that he has decided "to hit pause" on the project. Student athletes had been told to expect the new facilities in 2025. PROMISES BROKEN. Donors were told to expect the new facilities in 2025. PROMISES BROKEN. The coaching staff was told to expect the new facilities in 2025. PROMISES BROKEN. And the fans were told as well, but those PROMISES WERE BROKEN. 

The ILLINI are expecting $21 million from the College Football Players each year starting in 2026. There are television revenue agreements in place. The economy is doing well. What is your problem? 

THE THREAT

 

Underlying all of this pausing and putting on hold was the existential threat posed by the Athletic Director: 

"Whitman also acknowledged that to make sure the ILLINI thrive in the revenue sports that make this all go, football and men's basketball, Illinois athletics and its supporters must consider what sports they want to continue to sponsor."

Then, continuing with this media feeling out process, Whitman apparently let the following be known as reported by 247sports.com:

"Potentially shutting down one let alone multiple of the Illini's 19 varsity sports is a pretty heavy reality. But it is a potential reality because outside of the three most visible programs — football, men's basketball and women's basketball — each sponsored sport costs between $1 million to $3 million annually to operate."

The University of ILLINOIS wrestling program is 114 years old. It began the same year that isotopes were discovered, that the French Impressionist Renoir painted After the Bath. It began before World War I. To have an Athletic Director renege on his two-year-old promise now and then threaten the sport's existence at the school is bullshit. 

Here is a list of colleges and universities in ILLINOIS that have the sport of wrestling: Elmhurst University, McKendree University, Harper College, Augustana College, ILLINOIS Wesleyan University, North Central College, Northern ILLINOIS University, Millikin University, Northwestern University, University of Chicago, Wheaton College, Triton College, and Southern ILLINOIS University-Edwardsville.

Please note that one of the schools, that being ILLINOIS Wesleyan University, re-started their program this year. Like a number of the others, it is a small private school but can still afford wrestling.

Two of the colleges on the list are bloody junior colleges, and you're telling us that with all the fucking money in ILLINOIS you can't afford the sport at the biggest school, the school with the largest total budget, the school with the largest athletic budget, the school with the most enrolled students? Are you mad? 

The university should be adding Women's Wrestling not eliminating other sports. Do not, Josh Whitman, go down in the annals of history as the Athletic Director who killed sports at ILLINOIS. Since 1910, ten of your predecessors have managed to keep wrestling at the U of I. 

Don't be the one failure.

WHAT THE AD SHOULD DO

If Athletic Director Josh Whitman really wants the ILLINI to represent the State of ILLINOIS, he will not only fully support Men's Wrestling, including the new facility, but also add Women's Wrestling. It has become apparent that Women's High School Wrestling has exploded onto the scene. 

The number of females wrestling in high school has doubled in just the last year. "More than 350 ILLINOIS high schools have girls on their wrestling teams ... and increase of 114 from the previous year. 

ANOTHER REASON TO INCREASE FUNDING FOR THE SPORT AND BUILD THAT NEW WRESTLING-ONLY FACILITY

MMA. That's right, Mixed Martial Arts. Interest in wrestling has increased as the UFC and other promotions have gained fans. The ILLINI Regional Training Center has a coach that has had a number of fights. Another coach on the ILLINI squad just made his MMA debut to great fanfare. 

Another coach that uses the facilities has had an MMA fight. A couple of Wrestling alumni have recently had fights that went viral.

With the surge in interest in Mixed Martial Arts there's been a concomitant increase in interest in Wrestling. The University of ILLINOIS Athletic Department is in the best possible circumstance to profit from that. To our knowledge, no other university in the country (except maybe Minnesota) has as many coaches and alumni fighting, or who have fought, in the octagon.